Guarnier, Small to lead USA women’s team at World Championships in Qatar

by Anne-Marije Rook

September 20, 2016

Photography by Cor Vos

USA Cycling today announced its roster for the 2016 UCI Road World Championships held October 9-16 in Doha, Qatar. There will be 30 American athletes competing among the junior, U23 and elite categories.

While Qatar is the first Middle East country to host the championships, it’s no stranger to staging international cycling competition. The women’s peloton has been travelling to Qatar annually since 2009 for the Ladies Tour of Qatar, and the men’s edition of the tour has been going on since 2002.

The race is well known for its long, flat stretches through the hot and windswept Qatari desert and the sprint finishes. Sprinters and time trialists do well here, and as such we’ll see national teams line up with significantly different team rosters than the hilly Rio Olympic road race.

The elite races

National road race champion Megan Guarnier is the only rider on the women’s team to have represented Team USA in Rio earlier this year, and she’ll be leading a team of six in Doha.

Guarnier is having a career-best season with wins at the Amgen Women’s Tour of California, the American national road race, the Philadelphia Classic and the Giro Rosa, women’s cycling’s only grand tour. She’s currently the number one ranked female rider in the world and after a bronze medal at the world championships in Richmond last year, she’ll be eyeing the rainbow stripes.

Should the race come down to a battle of the pure sprinters, United Healthcare’s Coryn Rivera will be a strong contender for Team USA.

Despite her success in Rio, Olympic time trial champion Kristin Armstrong will not line up for the individual time trial at the world championship in Doha. She will however compete in the team time trial as part of the TWENTY16 Ridebiker squad.

Instead, we’ll see American national champion Carmen Small get a chance to represent team USA. After having been left off the Olympic team selection, she’ll be fired up.

Amber Neben, who finished second at the American national time trial championships, will take on the windy flats of Qatar as well.

The junior women races

The junior women of Team USA simply dominated the world championships in Richmond last year, and many eyes will be on them. But neither the defending two-time gold medalist Chloe Dygart (TWENTY16 Ridebiker) nor the two-time silver medalist Emma White (Rally Cycling) will line up in Doha. Dygert has been focusing on the track and is just coming off a silver Olympic medal ride in the team pursuit, and White is gearing up for the cyclocross season.

Instead look to sprinter Skylar Schneider, who together with her sister Samantha Schneider, has been tearing up the US criterium scene, and has a palmares filled with junior national titles.

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